Focused and Sustained Attention

Abstract

The selection of stimuli and responses for cognitive processing is an essential element of attention. As we have discussed in the preceding chapters, the processes underlying selective attention has been a primary emphasis. Yet, as the cognitive science of attention evolved, it became evident that it was necessary to account for other important aspects of attentional phenomena. Kahneman's capacity theory of attention was an early effort to address constraints on the amount of information that can be processed at any given point in time and the type of attentional limitations that emerge on concurrent task conditions [1]. Studies that demonstrated a distinction between controlled and automatic attentional processes [2--6] laid the groundwork for moving the cognitive science beyond its focus on attentional selection. The distinction between automatic and controlled attention provided an entrée into consideration of the neurophysiological underpinning of attention as measured by arousal and activation and their relationship to effort [7]. The fact that controlled attentional processes were fundamentally different from automatic processes with respect to capacity limitation constraints, performance characteristics over time, as well as demands for attentional focus, led to more directed study of focused attention and the notion that besides being tuned to certain information over others (selectivity), attention typically has an intensity. Furthermore, tasks with high demands for focused attention are often effortful and difficult to sustain for long periods of time, provided a foundation for expanding the concept of sustained attention beyond the simple vigilance paradigms of the information-processing approaches of the 1950s and 1960s.